Ratings and Meetings: 2024 in Atlanta Public Radio will Certainly be a Year.
Atlanta radio ratings for November to December showed news/talk station WSB remaining number one but dropping from an 8.8 number to 8.3.
Public broadcaster WABE moved from 3.2 in Nov. to 3.9 in Dec. and up to eighth place. WABE’s rival, Georgia Public Broadcasting on WRAS, dropped from 0.9 to 0.6.
This does suggest Cox and Friends, aka the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s daily radio show, moving from GPB to WABE may have helped the latter’s ratings while hurting Cox and Company’s WSB.
WABE wants to be a top ten station and sees the AJC hour as part of that programming strategy. Both the legacy newspaper and leading NPR affiliate are hyping the 2024 election year in Georgia, plus the Trump trial, potential drama at the state legislature, who might run for Gov. or Senate in 2026, etc.
Politics never ends.
It will certainly be a newsworthy year but there’s also a risk of news fatigue and an audience tired of horse race coverage or resolved to a repeat of the 2020 election. The novelty of Georgia being a battleground state may have worn off. There’s a palpable cynicism about politics and media and major institutions. It’s most expressed nationally but is getting localized including in Atlanta.
The AJC-WABE partnership still makes sense for both if super-serving political junkies is their goal, but it’s a blow to media independence in Atlanta.
Of the top ten highest rated radio stations, four are owned by Cox Media while WABE is now Cox-affiliated. True, Cox Media is majority-owned by Apollo Global with Cox Enterprises as minority owner, and WABE still claims their newsroom is distinct from the AJC’s, but that’s little comfort knowing cross-promotions and shared marketing strategies are ongoing.
WABE has never covered Cox, the company or the family Dynasty, in an adversarial way and the AJC’s coverage of public media in Atlanta is self-serving, as in its coverage of last year’s cut to GPB’s budget and subsequent canceling of Cox and Friends.
The next highest rated news and talk station is, in fact, GPB on WRAS. They don’t cover Cox or themselves well either.
The only other news/talk stations that show up in the ratings are the Black talk station WAOK, which does feature local hosts and callers, and the conservative WGKA.
There are other stations such as WBIN, the Black Information Network and the MAGA-aligned WMLB which airs Steve Bannon (no relation), but neither shows up in the radio ratings. WMLB, part of the John Fredericks radio network, does play an active role in Republican politics with hosts regularly firing up listeners to call their state legislators or take over county precinct offices.
Community station WRFG airs a mix of music and public affairs including Pacifica’s Democracy Now and local leftist shows. Just last week a program hosted by Mainline editor Aja Arnold debuted and promises pro-Stop Cop City coverage as the RICO trials proceed.
People don’t just listen to audio news on the radio anymore, however, and in late Dec. the Federal Communications Commission announced only slight changes to broadcast ownership rules leaving caps on how many stations one owner can have in any one city in place for now.
As broadcast stations lose listeners to streaming and podcasts, legacy owners have called for an update to the rules.
The implication is that if larger companies like Cox or iHeart could buy even more stations they’d be better able to compete for advertisers and be better positioned to invest in local programming.
I’m skeptical that would be the result. Much of the growth in podcasts and streaming was fueled by the consolidation of radio in the first place, the homogenized sounds, rigid music playlists, and use of syndication over local hosts.
Georgia’s state legislature meets starting today and will have to pass both a supplementary FY24 budget and one for FY25. I’ll be watching what happens to the GPB number in both.
Relatedly, GPB’s board usually meets in Jan. but in response to an email, I’m told the first meeting for 2024 will be Feb. 21st.
For horse race fans that’ll be just 14 days before Georgia’s March 5th presidential primary.
